gb_get_metadata: Retrieve boundary metadata from *geoBoundaries*

In geobounds: Download Administrative Boundary Data from 'geoBoundaries'

Retrieve boundary metadata from geoBoundaries

Description

Returns boundary metadata from the geoBoundaries API.

Usage

gb_get_metadata(
  country = "all",
  adm_lvl = "all",
  release_type = c("gbOpen", "gbHumanitarian", "gbAuthoritative")
)

Arguments

country	A character vector of country names or ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country codes. Use "all" to return boundaries for all countries. See also countrycode::countrycode() from countrycode.
adm_lvl	ADM level. Accepted values are "all" (all available boundaries) or the ADM level ("adm0" is the country boundary, "adm1" is the first level of subnational boundaries, "adm2" is the second level and so on). Uppercase versions ("ADM1") and level numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are also accepted, including numbers supplied as text (for example, "1").
release_type	A character string, one of "gbOpen", "gbHumanitarian" or "gbAuthoritative". For most users, use "gbOpen" (the default), which contains openly licensed boundaries suitable for most purposes when their individual license terms are followed. "gbHumanitarian" boundaries are mirrored from UN OCHA and may have additional conditions. "gbAuthoritative" boundaries are mirrored from UN SALB, verified through in-country processes and cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Details

The result is a tibble from tibble with the following columns:

• boundaryID: The ID for this layer. It combines the ISO code, boundary type and a unique identifier generated from the input metadata and geometry. This only changes if the underlying boundary changes.

• boundaryName: The name of the country represented by the layer.

• boundaryISO: The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for the country.

• boundaryYearRepresented: The year or range of years in "START to END" format that the boundary layers represent.

• boundaryType: The type of boundary.

• boundaryCanonical: The canonical name of the boundary.

• boundarySource: A comma-separated list of the primary sources for the boundary.

• boundarySourceURL: The URL of the original boundary source.

• boundaryLicense: The original license under which the primary source released the boundary.

• licenseDetail: Notes about the license.

• licenseSource: The URL of the primary source.

• sourceDataUpdateDate: The date the source information was integrated into the geoBoundaries repository.

• buildDate: The date the source boundary was most recently standardized and built into a geoBoundaries release.

• Continent: The continent the country is associated with.

• UNSDG-region: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) region the country is associated with.

• UNSDG-subregion: The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) subregion the country is associated with.

• worldBankIncomeGroup: The World Bank income group the country is associated with.

• admUnitCount: The number of administrative units in the boundary.

• meanVertices: The mean number of vertices defining the boundaries of each administrative unit in the layer.

• minVertices: The minimum number of vertices defining a boundary.

• maxVertices: The maximum number of vertices defining a boundary.

• minPerimeterLengthKM: The minimum perimeter length of an administrative unit in the layer, measured in kilometers and based on a World Equidistant Cylindrical projection.

• meanPerimeterLengthKM: The mean perimeter length of an administrative unit in the layer, measured in kilometers and based on a World Equidistant Cylindrical projection.

• maxPerimeterLengthKM: The maximum perimeter length of an administrative unit in the layer, measured in kilometers and based on a World Equidistant Cylindrical projection.

• meanAreaSqKM: The mean area of all administrative units in the layer, measured in square kilometers and based on an EASE-GRID 2 projection.

• minAreaSqKM: The minimum area of an administrative unit in the layer, measured in square kilometers and based on an EASE-GRID 2 projection.

• maxAreaSqKM: The maximum area of an administrative unit in the layer, measured in square kilometers and based on an EASE-GRID 2 projection.

• staticDownloadLink: The static download link for the aggregate ZIP file containing all boundary information.

• gjDownloadURL: The static download link for the GeoJSON.

• tjDownloadURL: The static download link for the TopoJSON.

• imagePreview: The static download link for an automatically rendered PNG image of the layer.

• simplifiedGeometryGeoJSON: The static download link for the simplified GeoJSON.

Value

A tibble from tibble with one row per matching boundary and the columns described in Details.

Source

geoBoundaries API.

See Also

gb_get() downloads the boundaries described by the metadata. The ADM wrappers request a single administrative level.

Metadata and licensing functions: gb_get_max_adm_lvl()

Examples

# Get boundary metadata for ADM4.

library(dplyr)

gb_get_metadata(adm_lvl = "ADM4") |>
  glimpse()

geobounds documentation built on Sept. 6, 2026, 1:06 a.m.